Lando Norris clinched pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with an impressive last-gasp effort to beat Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, making the most of his upgraded McLaren.
In the dying moments of Q3, Norris crossed the line with a 1m 17.207s lap, perfectly timing his effort to avoid two late yellow flags brought out by a spinning Max Verstappen and a stranded George Russell.
Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap and took P2 ahead of Leclerc, while Kimi Antonelli settled for fourth place in a frustrating session for Mercedes.
Asked to park up by his team, Russell qualified P7 behind Oscar Piastri and Verstappen as both Red Bull drivers suffered spins during the final segment.
Isack Hadjar claimed P8, with Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top-10 qualifiers at the Hungaroring.
Liam Lawson failed to make it into the final part of Qualifying by 0.126s and will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from P11, leading Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. Gabriel Bortoleto took an underwhelming P14 for Audi from Esteban Ocon and a much-improved Fernando Alonso.
Ollie Bearman was outqualified by his Haas team mate and wound up P17, missing out on a spot in Q2 by just over a tenth. He was joined in being knocked out by the Williams duo of Carlos Sainz (P18) and Alex Albon (P19), both of whom expressed their frustrations with the car after the session.
While Alonso made the most of his updated Aston Martin, his team mate Lance Stroll settled for P20 ahead of Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
AS IT HAPPENED
Q1 – Norris on top as Alonso progresses for the first time this season
After three hours of practice filled with lock-ups, wide moments and learning about upgrades – as well as a promising performance from both Ferrari drivers – it was time for the all-important Qualifying hour.
The Hungaroring is sometimes known as ‘Monaco without the walls’ for a reason – overtaking opportunities are limited at this circuit, requiring patience, intelligence and most importantly, a strong grid position.
Some of the drivers more used to Q1 exits headed out as soon as the light turned green at the end of the pit lane, with Bottas the first on track, followed by Sainz and Albon. The Williams pair had endured a torrid weekend to this point, struggling for performance at the high-downforce venue.
They were soon joined by Alonso, who set an initial benchmark of 1m 20.685s on soft tyres as he aimed to maximise the near brand-new Aston Martin. Unsurprisingly, his time was blown out of the water by Hamilton, with the Briton breaking into the 1m 18s bracket on the more durable medium compound.
His Ferrari team mate had his first effort deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 3, allowing Red Bull through to sandwich Hamilton at the top of the timesheets – Verstappen seized P1 by a small margin of 0.074s and Hadjar slotted into P3, both on the red-walled tyres.
Antonelli was next to bump Hamilton down a spot as he improved to second place behind the Dutchman, with the top four drivers separated by mere hundredths until Norris completed a spectacular lap to go over three tenths clear at the top.
The drop zone featured Bearman, both Williams drivers, both Cadillacs and Bortoleto, whose first lap was discounted due to track limits. After a short return to the pits, only a few minutes remained for those at risk to find the time needed to progress to Q2.
Norris ultimately remained in first place despite Antonelli’s best efforts to outpace him, but despite a flurry of improvements, Bearman, Sainz, Albon, the upgraded Aston Martin of Stroll, and Bottas and Perez were eliminated from the session.
Knocked out: Bearman, Sainz, Albon, Stroll, Bottas, Perez
Q2 – Norris quickest again as Antonelli squeezes through
The top 10 seemed too distant an ambition for Aston Martin, but Alonso was still eager to show what their new package could really do as he became the first driver on track in the opening minutes of Q2.
Just as Verstappen set an early standard of 1m 18.249s, his team mate Hadjar brought out the yellow flag after he dipped a wheel in the gravel and spun onto the grass, forcing him to go back to the pits and reset before going again.
Normal conditions quickly resumed and Hamilton set the fastest lap of the weekend so far – 1m 17.931s – but reported that he could still extract more time, which wasn’t the best news for his rival Antonelli, who complained that Mercedes were “doing something wrong with tyres” as he felt he had “zero grip”.
The Italian’s session got even worse as he was the next driver to have his time deleted, putting him under immense pressure to deliver in the last two minutes. Someone who rose above similar tension was Hadjar – he charged into top spot with the clean lap he needed.
Antonelli managed to improve to P6 and Leclerc also escaped from the drop zone by improving to P2, just after Norris reclaimed first place by another significant margin. While the usual frontrunners made it through, Lawson ended up P11 ahead of Alpine’s Gasly and Colapinto, Bortoleto, Ocon and Alonso.
Knocked out: Lawson, Gasly, Colapinto, Bortoleto, Ocon, Alonso
Q3 – Norris excels but Mercedes drop back
It was a gradual start to Q3 as many wanted to wait as long as possible to capitalise on the track evolution, with Verstappen once again crossing the line first with an opening lap of 1m 17.725s.
McLaren’s Norris outperformed the Red Bull driver with a mighty lap, but an error towards the end meant that Hamilton was able to sail into P1, holding an advantage of just over a tenth to the reigning World Champion.
After the first runs were completed, Hamilton remained the driver to beat from Norris, Leclerc and Antonelli, while the second Mercedes of Russell found himself half a second off in P7 as his team seemed to be lacking pace in the challenge for pole position.
Hamilton and Norris went for separate tactics in the battle at the top, with the former choosing to be the first on track for his final attempt while Norris would be the last to take the chequered flag.
The Ferrari driver couldn’t improve, paving the way for Norris to storm through and take pole position with a stellar 1m 17.207s lap. He managed to avoid two yellow flags on his way to P1, the first of which was waved as Verstappen spun and insisted that his car was “completely broken”.
Russell prompted the second as Mercedes ordered him to pull up at Turn 1 and abandon the session, leaving him resigned to P7 on the grid behind third-placed Leclerc, the lead Silver Arrows of Antonelli, Piastri and Verstappen.
However, there would be an investigation after Qualifying into an incident that saw Hamilton potentially impede Piastri, which could result in a grid penalty for the Briton. At the other end of the top 10, Hadjar qualified P8 for Red Bull ahead of midfield stars Lindblad and Hulkenberg.
Key quote
“I’m very, very happy – very happy to be back on top,” said Norris. “A tough, tough Quali. Obviously these guys here [Ferrari] were very quick. It’s been pretty tight the whole weekend. We’ve seemed quick from the first laps that we did. We brought a few upgrades, and it’s hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time, but it certainly helped today. I’m very, very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you want to be on pole.”
What’s next
The 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix is set to begin at 1500 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can follow the action from the Hungaroring.
